The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!

Thursday, December 31, 2015

"Dear White America"

I've been struggling to formulate a rational response - rather than an angry, frustrated "Not again!" - to an op-ed published in the New York Times on Christmas Eve. It was titled 'Dear White America'. Here's an excerpt.

You may have never used the N-word in your life, you may hate the K.K.K., but that does not mean that you don’t harbor racism and benefit from racism. After all, you are part of a system that allows you to walk into stores where you are not followed, where you get to go for a bank loan and your skin does not count against you, where you don’t need to engage in “the talk” that black people and people of color must tell their children when they are confronted by white police officers.

As you reap comfort from being white, we suffer for being black and people of color. But your comfort is linked to our pain and suffering. Just as my comfort in being male is linked to the suffering of women, which makes me sexist, so, too, you are racist. That is the gift that I want you to accept, to embrace. It is a form of knowledge that is taboo. Imagine the impact that the acceptance of this gift might have on you and the world.

Take another deep breath. I know that there are those who will write to me in the comment section with boiling anger, sarcasm, disbelief, denial. There are those who will say, “Yancy is just an angry black man.” There are others who will say, “Why isn’t Yancy telling black people to be honest about the violence in their own black neighborhoods?” Or, “How can Yancy say that all white people are racists?” If you are saying these things, then you’ve already failed to listen. I come with a gift. You’re already rejecting the gift that I have to offer. This letter is about you. Don’t change the conversation. I assure you that so many black people suffering from poverty and joblessness, which is linked to high levels of crime, are painfully aware of the existential toll that they have had to face because they are black and, as Baldwin adds, “for no other reason.”

Some of your white brothers and sisters have made this leap. The legal scholar Stephanie M. Wildman, has written, “I simply believe that no matter how hard I work at not being racist, I still am. Because part of racism is systemic, I benefit from the privilege that I am struggling to see.” And the journalism professor Robert Jensen: “I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the institutional racism around me. Every time I walk into a store at the same time as a black man and the security guard follows him and leaves me alone to shop, I am benefiting from white privilege.”

. . .

Perhaps the language of this letter will encourage a split — not a split between black and white, but a fissure in your understanding, a space for loving a Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald and others. I’m suggesting a form of love that enables you to see the role that you play (even despite your anti-racist actions) in a system that continues to value black lives on the cheap.

I don't have space or time to write a fully detailed rebuttal to this op-ed, but I'd like to hit a few high points.

To start, this entire 'letter' is filled with a Marxist understanding of society - 'race' substituting for 'class', but nevertheless it's fundamentally Marxist. It's a false delineation of the 'fault lines' in society, and it suffers accordingly. I've commented many times that to judge anyone on the basis of their group identity, rather than their individual conduct, is nonsensical. There are good and bad Blacks, Whites or Asians; Australians, Americans or Germans; English-speakers, French-speakers or Russian-speakers; Christians, Hindus or Muslims; and so on. The group cannot predict the behavior, or define the worth, of the individual. A Muslim can be a US Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant (as one is, of my online acquaintance), or save the life (repeatedly) of a Christian worker for the endangered in society (as one did for me); or he can be a terrorist and a suicide bomber. His religion has little or nothing to do with his individual 'goodness' or 'badness'. The same applies to race. The color of one's skin doesn't determine - or even indicate - whether one's a good or a bad person.

Next, I'd argue that the negative responses of whites to blacks that the author identifies aren't so much based on the color of the black person's skin as they are on the experience of how far too many black people behave. I worked as a prison chaplain in State and Federal institutions for more than a few years. I'm here to tell you, the proportion of black people behind bars (relative to their race as a constituent of American society) is ludicrously high, compared to every other race in this country. I utterly refuse to believe that they're in prison solely because of the color of their skin. They're there because they broke the law. We can argue whether those laws are justifiable or not. We can argue whether the criminal justice system judges blacks more harshly than whites, and allocates longer sentences to the former than to the latter. Those debates are worth having, and I think there's a lot of truth to the questions raised about those issues. Nevertheless, the simple fact remains that in general, one doesn't end up in prison unless one has done something to deserve it.

The cruel, brutal fact of the matter, confirmed by impartial sources such as the FBI's crime statistics, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and others, is that the average black person is statistically several times more likely to commit crimes than the average person of any other race or ethnic group in the USA. It's not racist to say that. It's simple, measurable, empirically verifiable fact, and impartial US government statistics confirm it irrefutably. As a result, the average white person is more suspicious of the average black person, and the average security guard in a store will be more suspicious of a black shopper than a white one. They're not doing it because of racial discrimination, but because of criminal statistics and their experience of what those mean in reality. If the author of this letter and others like him want to see a change in white attitudes towards blacks, I respectfully suggest that the criminal reality I've just highlighted will have to change, and demonstrate sustained, ongoing improvement, before such attitudes will change.

Another problem is that the grievances of many black people have become institutionalized reverse racism, rather than a genuine attempt to address the issues. A well-known example is President Obama's intervention in the case of Professor Henry Gates. The President didn't bother to confirm the actual facts of the matter - he came out with a knee-jerk response citing the "long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately". Many people - including myself - were angered by this 'rush to judgment' without waiting to confirm the evidence of what actually took place.

We're seeing it again in the current 'Black Lives Matter' protests. I agree that there are cases of police shootings that are at best legally dubious, and at worst amount to nothing less than murder under color of law. I agree that those police responsible for such crimes should be tried and punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, what we have today is a 'rush to judgment' where every time a black person is shot by a white policeman, it's automatically assumed that racism was at least a factor in, if not the primary reason for the shooting. This is absolute nonsense, and the 'Black Lives Matter' movement discredits itself every time it does this. Furthermore, I argue that all lives matter, not just black lives. Any time anyone is shot by police, I want the same care, diligence and attention taken in the investigation. To say that the shootings of black people require more careful investigation than those of members of other races or ethnic groups is racist in itself.

Finally, I want to express real sympathy for the author. I understand his frustrations in a way that relatively few white people can or do. I come from a country (South Africa) where to be black was to be oppressed from birth, in a way that few black people in the USA can understand from experience. I've written about it several times before (try this article for a start), and I did my best to work against it. I was (and am) proud and honored to have played a small part in the destruction of the evil that was apartheid. Nevertheless, facts trump feelings. If we're to address the realities of racial friction in the USA (or anywhere else), we need to start with facts and remain firmly rooted in and grounded on reality, not perceptions or interpretations of that reality.

If white people have to take off their rose-colored spectacles to see reality, so, too, black people have to take off their racially charged spectacles and acknowledge that much of what they perceive as racism is, in fact, nothing more than an entirely logical, rational reaction by others to the actual behavior of many members of their race. (For the most recent example, see the closing of a Louisville, KY shopping mall last weekend following a disturbance provoked by well over a thousand people. The media described them simply as 'youths', but photographs and video footage showed very clearly that they were all of one race. Guess which race that was? And guess what reaction their behavior engendered among members of other races who were present at the time?)

If such reactions by whites to blacks were truly caused by racism, they'd be extended to every other racial group as well . . . yet they're not. There's a reason for that. Look for that reason in reality rather than resentment. That's where you'll find it.

17 comments:

Dan Lane
said...

What bothers me is the fact that Mr. Yancy (and many, many others) seem so hung up on the "black" part, and living up to what they think that ought to mean, and little or not at all on the "man" part, which to me is far more important. A man, not just a nominally adult male, does not brag on how many "baby mammas" he has impregnated without marrying. He does not throw rocks at the police when they come to disperse him and his fellows when they clog the streets shouting "Black Lives Matter!" He does not idolize those who break the law, and demonize those charged with enforcing it when the law is designed to be just.

None of these things have dignity in them. I'm fine with them having pride in being a black man- so long as the emphasis is on being a *man* and not a child. I did not grow up the only little white face in a sea of black, in the rural South, and not realize that skin color is the least important thing. Those prideful, foolish "black men" need to grow up and be the fathers that help make strong families with the same solid values that white, yellow, beige and whatever other color families into good, law abiding people.

Learn to be a man, first, Mr. Yancy. Do that, and other men, whatever the color, will stand with you.

When the "Reverend" Jesse Jackson admits that he relaxes when, upon hearing footfalls to his rear, he looks around and sees he's being followed by a white person, the truth may have inadvertently come out of his noise hole.This train is speeding toward a destination that no race will enjoy. Why is that not OBVIOUS?

Political correctness and double standards ARE bringing us down... And when things hit bottom, I don't thing ANYONE is going to like the results, much less the true anarchy it will bring to the big cities... I predict the response will be too little, too late and people WILL have to defend themselves with what is at hand.

Our government leaders and the mainstream media are instigating and fueling this "white privilege" and "racism" and "islamaphobia" and the"gay" agenda, among others. Our country is purposely and deliberately being divided. We are being pitted against each other. What is the end game purpose and what will it look like for you and me?

I'm tired of writing long justifications for why "whiteness isn't so bad". Now I just say, "Yancy, I don't care". Whatever sympathy the black community might have gotten from be for real injustice is now squandered. I no longer care. Every black man who looks and acts like me will be treated by me as I would want to be treated. Every black man who talks like Yancy will be treated with suspicion and risk avoidance. And I don't care if he thinks it isn't fair. I don't hate the K.K.K. I save hatred for REAL people who are an actual threat to my safety, not imaginary threats from the long distant past. I don't use the N word, but if at some point in the future, I feel like doing so, I will, and I don't care if Yancy is offended. He and those like him have used up their offended budget for my whole lifetime. They get no more.

Go ahead and call me a racist. I don't care. It doesn't change who I really am. Not only do I no longer care about being called a racist, I also don't care if I actually AM one. Yancy won't come to my Christmas party? I can live with that.

I was going to say.."What a load of "self righteous bullshit...". Sorry for the bad language...but it is how I feel. "Generic View" said exactly what I am feeling...I am to a point, I don't care what they think....I am suffering from "black exhaustion" and my care meter is already pegged out and there is no more "care" left. I am tired for being blamed for all the worlds ills...I am tired for being blamed for everything....I am just tired of it all. They can collapse upon themselves and destroy each other and I won't shed a tear. or am I too cynical and jaded...?

One thing these people don't seem to understand is that constantly harping about how evil someone is because of X trait, even when the reality is different, is that eventually people will give up defending themselves from it. And the violent fringe will start giving these people real reason to fear. "If I'm going to be constantly called a racist I might as well start dragging people out of their homes and burning them alive on the front lawn, right? You want me to be racist? I can be racist."

There's only one solution to this. All whites must be relegated to their own geographic areas where they can't inflict their white racism on those of color. Those of color will finally have their own space in which their culture may flourish and bloom to its full potential without the stifling injustice of white privilege. Nice secure fortified borders could be constructed of course to keep whites and their privilege contained and prevent them from microagressing people of color. People of color can police their own and conduct their affairs as they see fit and whites can do the same. It's a fair an equitable solution for all involved.

Generic view is spot on. Has South Africa improved with the removal of white leadership? Has Rhodesia now Zimbabwe improved with the removal of white leadership and farmers? From what I've read all the average people seem to be suffering whether black or white. Is any major US city better off with large black populations? No. The race hustlers and most politicians like the tension and desensitization. A pox on all like Mr. Yancy.Fred

Anon at 6:50, as I recall what you're describing is called Liberia.For those of African heritage, that your ancestor was captured and sold into slavery was indeed a truly terrible thing, for that ancestor. That sad event, along with the bloodiest war ever fought for the sole purpose of correcting that wrong, were your winning lottery ticket to life as a free citizen in the richest country in the world, with opportunities your ancestor's cousins who were not taken can only dream of.

Here's a modest proposal. I believe in reparations, and here's how they should work. Any American citizen can petition the government for redress against actions done to their ancestors.They get a free DNA test to determine where said ancestors came from. Once location of origin is determined the government provides all legal and physical requirements to return the petitioner to that country.All the petitioner must do in exchange is permanently renounce their American citizenship.Seems only fair to me.